The Examination of Injuries in Dancers

The purpose of the present study was to examine the incidence of the injuries in dancers. A hundred and sixty eight dancers (135 women and 33 men) 23.17+6.43 years old, members of different dancing clubs, participated in the research. All the subjects participated only in dancing programs for learning, performing and practicing in any kind of dance and no other form of physical activity, and filled the instrument of measurements concerning general questions as well as questions about injury incidence. For data analysis, descriptive analysis and Pearson chi-square test of the SPSS version 17 for windows, were used. From the results it was shown that the biggest percentage of dancers take hip-hop (25.1%) and Latin American lessons (18.6%). Moreover, the dancers are involved in European dances, classic ballet, modern dance, oriental dances and Greek dances. The subjects participated in dance programs for 4.44 + 4.45 years, 3.16+1.63 days a week, for 2.29+1.30 hours a day. According to the dancersrsquo statements, 44.62% of them have suffered an injury. The most usual kinds of injuries are muscle strains (22.9%), muscular spasms-cramps (20.15%), callus (13.18%), sprains (12.53%), blisters (11.80%) and abrasions (11.10%). Also, in smaller percentages follow the fractures (3.48%), hematomas (3.48%) and dislocations (1.38%). The most significant causes of the injuries are poor warming-up (21.92%), fatigue (16.64%), clumsiness (15.68%), bad technique (10.48%), and concentration (10%), and nbspin smaller percentages performance pressure (7.12%), shoes (5.2%), partner and floor (4.8% both), hour of the day (1.44%), as well as competition and space tightness (7.96% both). Most of the dancers of the present sample (34%), who had an injury, overcame it with medication, 25% needed further medical examinations and 20% overcame the injury with rehabilitation. 16% of the dancers needed rest, while fortunately, only 5% overcame the injury with a surgery. Finally, most of the dancers of the present sample (63.76%) consider that dance teachers, as well as dancing clubs, are concerned very much with injuries prevention (63.76%). Consequently, recognizing, resolving, but above all, preventing the causes of injuries is very important concerning injuriesrsquo avoidance, good physical condition of dancers, reduction of training time loss, continuation of professional career, and continuation of dancing activity of those who have finished their career or are not professionally engaged in dancing

THE EFFECT OF A 24-WEEK GREEK TRADITIONAL DANCES PROGRAM ON THE CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS OF ADULT PEOPLE

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of a Greek traditional dances program on adult people cardiorespiratory fitness. For this purpose, 40 sedentary healthy adults, 23 women and 17 men, aged 35-55 years, who didn’t participate in any group or individual exercise, physical activity or dancing program for the past six months, were randomly chosen and separated to an experimental and a control group. The subjects of the experimental group (n=20, 12 women and 8 men) attended a Greek traditional dances program of moderate intensity, at a frequency of three training sessions per week, for 60 minutes each, while the subjects of the control group (n=20, 11 women and 9 men) were asked to continue their daily habits for the same period. Maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max) was assessed for both groups before and after the 24-week period by the implementation of the Rockport one-mile walk test. Before and after the 24-week period, resting heart rate (RHR), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were, also, measured. For the statistical analysis the Statistical Package for Social Sciences ver. 23.0 for windows was used. No significant difference was found in the baseline measures between the two groups. After the participation in the 24-week Greek traditional dances program, VO2max of the experimental group increased significantly from 35,95+4,3 ml/kg/min to 38,91+3,7 ml/kg/min (t=-6,204, p<0,001). Changes in DBP and SBP to the desirable direction were found. More specifically, DBP decreased from 79,4+7,6 mmHg to 78,8+7,6 mmHg (t=0,399, p>0,05), and SBP decreased from 125,6+7,7 mmHg to 122,6+7,7 mmHg (t=2,198, p<0,05). No significant difference was found after the 24-week period for the control group. The results allow us to use Greek traditional dances as an alternative and, also, effective form of physical activity that may help in improving aerobic capacity and may bring favorable changes in cardiorespiratory status of adult people.  Article visualizations

EFFECT OF REGULAR PRACTICING GREEK TRADITIONAL DANCES ON BODY COMPOSITION PARAMETERS IN ADULT PEOPLE

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of a Greek traditional dances program on adult individuals’ body composition parameters. For this purpose, 73 sedentary healthy adults, 42 women and 31 men, aged 38-58 years, were randomly chosen and separated into an experimental and a control group. The subjects of the experimental group (n=37, 22 women and 15 men) engaged in a 24-week Greek traditional dance program with moderate intensity, and at a frequency of three training sessions per week, each lasting 60 minutes. The control group (n=36, 20 women and 16 men) did not engage in any physical activity. Body mass, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured, and BMI, body fat percentage and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were assessed pre- and post-24-week Greek traditional dances program. For the statistical analysis the Statistical Package for Social Sciences ver. 23.0 for windows was used. No significant difference was found in the baseline measurements between the two groups. After the participation in the 24-week Greek traditional dances intervention program the experimental group presented significant decreases in body mass from 77,71±16,8 kg to 75,57±15,7 kg (t=5,121, p<0,001), in BMI from 25,75±4 kg/m2 to 25,05±3,8 kg/m2 (t=5,289 p<0,001), in BF percentage from 28,3±6,4% to 26,33±5,6% (t=5.279 p<0,001) and in WC from 89,81±12,9 cm to 87,46±12 cm (t=5.703, p<0,001). No significant difference was found after the 24-week period for the control group. Regarding the WHR, no significant change was observed, although the experimental group showed a tendency for reduction while the control group showed a slight increase. The results of this study indicate that Greek traditional dances are a very beneficial alternative exercise form that brings favorable changes in body mass and body composition parameters. In general, among its multiple utilities and benefits, dancing can contribute to weight loss programs.  Article visualizations

Greek Traditional Dances Program and Self-Evaluated Effects and Changes in Life

The purpose of the present study was the evaluation of the effects of Greek traditional dancing programs on middle-aged peoplersquos life. Seventy one subjects (60 women and 11 men) 51.92+4.99 years old, members of different dance clubs, participated in the research. All the subjects participated in a group dancing program for learning and performing Greek traditional dances once a week. The effects and changes in life due to participation in the Greek traditional dancing program were measured through questions by Chewing, Yu kappaalphaiota Johnson (http://www.krapu4.com/taichi/research/Chewing Yu Johnson B. htm#emotions). For data analysis were used the descriptive analysis and Pearson chi-square test of the SPSS version 17 for windows. From the results, it was proved that almost 90% of the subjects supposed that their participation in the Greek traditional dancing program had an effect on their lives. The bigger percentage declared that the participation in Greek traditional dances offered them joy, well-being and calmness (33.30%), as well as many effects on their bodies (33.30%), while a smaller percentage claimed that their participation in the program offered them sociability-participation in a group (16.70%) and activity increase (16.70%). In addition, more than 4/5 (86.50%) believe that their participation in the Greek traditional dancing program has changed their confidence concerning their mobility or possible falls. About three-quarters of the subjects (73.70%) consider that their participation in the program of Greek traditional dances influenced in any way their everyday activities. The majority (78.90%) believe that their physical activity has changed as a result of their participation in the program of Greek traditional dances. Finally, all people think they have been benefited from their participation in the Greek traditional dancing program, which is very important. In addition, the Pearson chi-square test showed a significant effect (x2=8.15, plt0.05) of the years that the subjects participated in Greek traditional dancing programs on the feeling of people#39s confidence in their mobility or possible falls. Thus, as the years of participation in Greek traditional dances are increasing, the feeling of people#39s confidence in their mobility or even the potential falls is increasing. From the results, it was shown that all the middle-aged people suppose that they have been benefited from their participation in the Greek traditional dancing program.nbspThe benefits concern their better emotional state expressed in joy, well-being, calmness and sociability-participation in a group, but also their better physical condition, confidence in their mobility and possible falls, increase in their physical activities and the effects on everyday activities. The importance of participation in Greek traditional dances is also worth mentioning. Thus, it could be said that the participation in Greek traditional dancing programs brings about effects and changes on life. Consequently, Greek traditional dances as a regular physical activity may be extremely useful for the quality of life of middle-aged people offering many benefits.nbs

Ant colony optimization with immigrants schemes for the dynamic railway junction rescheduling problem with multiple delays

Train rescheduling after a perturbation is a challenging task and is an important concern of the railway industry as delayed trains can lead to large fines, disgruntled customers and loss of revenue. Sometimes not just one delay but several unrelated delays can occur in a short space of time which makes the problem even more challenging. In addition, the problem is a dynamic one that changes over time for, as trains are waiting to be rescheduled at the junction, more timetabled trains will be arriving, which will change the nature of the problem. The aim of this research is to investigate the application of several different ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms to the problem of a dynamic train delay scenario with multiple delays. The algorithms not only resequence the trains at the junction but also resequence the trains at the stations, which is considered to be a first step towards expanding the problem to consider a larger area of the railway network. The results show that, in this dynamic rescheduling problem, ACO algorithms with a memory cope with dynamic changes better than an ACO algorithm that uses only pheromone evaporation to remove redundant pheromone trails. In addition, it has been shown that if the ant solutions in memory become irreparably infeasible it is possible to replace them with elite immigrants, based on the best-so-far ant, and still obtain a good performance

eQuilibrator—the biochemical thermodynamics calculator

The laws of thermodynamics constrain the action of biochemical systems. However, thermodynamic data on biochemical compounds can be difficult to find and is cumbersome to perform calculations with manually. Even simple thermodynamic questions like ‘how much Gibbs energy is released by ATP hydrolysis at pH 5?’ are complicated excessively by the search for accurate data. To address this problem, eQuilibrator couples a comprehensive and accurate database of thermodynamic properties of biochemical compounds and reactions with a simple and powerful online search and calculation interface. The web interface to eQuilibrator (http://equilibrator.weizmann.ac.il) enables easy calculation of Gibbs energies of compounds and reactions given arbitrary pH, ionic strength and metabolite concentrations. The eQuilibrator code is open-source and all thermodynamic source data are freely downloadable in standard formats. Here we describe the database characteristics and implementation and demonstrate its use

Pre-scheduled colony size variation in dynamic environments

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The performance of the MAX -MIN ant system (MMAS) in dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) is sensitive to the colony size. In particular, a large colony size may waste computational resources whereas a small colony size may restrict the searching capabilities of the algorithm. There is a trade off in the behaviour of the algorithm between the early and later stages of the optimization process. A smaller colony size leads to better performance on shorter runs whereas a larger colony size leads to better performance on longer runs. In this paper, pre-scheduling of varying the colony size of MMAS is investigated in dynamic environments

Including metabolite concentrations into flux balance analysis: thermodynamic realizability as a constraint on flux distributions in metabolic networks

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent years, constrained optimization – usually referred to as flux balance analysis (FBA) – has become a widely applied method for the computation of stationary fluxes in large-scale metabolic networks. The striking advantage of FBA as compared to kinetic modeling is that it basically requires only knowledge of the stoichiometry of the network. On the other hand, results of FBA are to a large degree hypothetical because the method relies on plausible but hardly provable optimality principles that are thought to govern metabolic flux distributions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To augment the reliability of FBA-based flux calculations we propose an additional side constraint which assures thermodynamic realizability, i.e. that the flux directions are consistent with the corresponding changes of Gibb's free energies. The latter depend on metabolite levels for which plausible ranges can be inferred from experimental data. Computationally, our method results in the solution of a mixed integer linear optimization problem with quadratic scoring function. An optimal flux distribution together with a metabolite profile is determined which assures thermodynamic realizability with minimal deviations of metabolite levels from their expected values. We applied our novel approach to two exemplary metabolic networks of different complexity, the metabolic core network of erythrocytes (30 reactions) and the metabolic network iJR904 of <it>Escherichia coli </it>(931 reactions). Our calculations show that increasing network complexity entails increasing sensitivity of predicted flux distributions to variations of standard Gibb's free energy changes and metabolite concentration ranges. We demonstrate the usefulness of our method for assessing critical concentrations of external metabolites preventing attainment of a metabolic steady state.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our method incorporates the thermodynamic link between flux directions and metabolite concentrations into a practical computational algorithm. The weakness of conventional FBA to rely on intuitive assumptions about the reversibility of biochemical reactions is overcome. This enables the computation of reliable flux distributions even under extreme conditions of the network (e.g. enzyme inhibition, depletion of substrates or accumulation of end products) where metabolite concentrations may be drastically altered.</p

Route Optimization of Electric Vehicles based on Dynamic Wireless Charging

open access articleOneofthebarriersfortheadoptionofelectricvehicles(EVs)istheanxietyaroundthelimited driving range. Recent proposals have explored charging EVs on the move, using dynamic wireless charging which enables power exchange between the vehicle and the grid while the vehicle is moving. In this paper, we focus on the intelligent routing of EVs in need of charging so that they can make most efficient use of the so-called mobile energy disseminators (MEDs) which operate as mobile charging stations. We present a methodforroutingEVsaroundMEDsontheroadnetwork,whichisbasedonconstraintlogicprogramming and optimization using a graph-based shortest path algorithm. The proposed method exploits inter-vehicle communications in order to eco-route electric vehicles. We argue that combining modern communications betweenvehiclesandstateofthearttechnologiesonenergytransfer,thedrivingrangeofEVscanbeextended without the need for larger batteries or overtly costly infrastructure. We present extensive simulations in city conditions that show the driving range and consequently the overall travel time of electric vehicles is improved with intelligent routing in the presence of MEDs

anNET: a tool for network-embedded thermodynamic analysis of quantitative metabolome data

Background: Compared to other omics techniques, quantitative metabolomics is still at its infancy. Complex sample preparation and analytical procedures render exact quantification extremely difficult. Furthermore, not only the actual measurement but also the subsequent interpretation of quantitative metabolome data to obtain mechanistic insights is still lacking behind the current expectations. Recently, the method of network-embedded thermodynamic (NET) analysis was introduced to address some of these open issues. Building upon principles of thermodynamics, this method allows for a quality check of measured metabolite concentrations and enables to spot metabolic reactions where active regulation potentially controls metabolic flux. So far, however, widespread application of NET analysis in metabolomics labs was hindered by the absence of suitable software. Results: We have developed in Matlab a generalized software called 'anNET' that affords a user-friendly implementation of the NET analysis algorithm. anNET supports the analysis of any metabolic network for which a stoichiometric model can be compiled. The model size can span from a single reaction to a complete genome-wide network reconstruction including compartments. anNET can (i) test quantitative data sets for thermodynamic consistency, (ii) predict metabolite concentrations beyond the actually measured data, (iii) identify putative sites of active regulation in the metabolic reaction network, and (iv) help in localizing errors in data sets that were found to be thermodynamically infeasible. We demonstrate the application of anNET with three published Escherichia coli metabolome data sets. Conclusion: Our user-friendly and generalized implementation of the NET analysis method in the software anNET allows users to rapidly integrate quantitative metabolome data obtained from virtually any organism. We envision that use of anNET in labs working on quantitative metabolomics will provide the systems biology and metabolic engineering communities with a mean to proof the quality of metabolome data sets and with all further benefits of the NET analysis approach.